Guest Speakers

Our latest Monday night class was, by far, the best one I've been to this semester. I really appreciated everything that our two speakers had to say about schools and their view. The most interesting portion of these questions were about NCLB/standardized tests. They brought up some great viewpoints that I don't think we discussed enough in our classes and that we probably should have.

One thing they mentioned was that the tests get teachers talking about what they can do to fix certain aspects of their curriculum. True, standardized tests may not be the most accurate way to test certain students, but if your scores in one area are consistently falling with all students, you can clearly see that there is a problem with the way that teachers may be teaching that subject and we can work to improve the students' education.

The other thing that I thought was great for them to bring up is the fact that standardized tests are just one part of the puzzle. Students are not being assessed solely on how they perform on ITBS tests or ACTs. The point of standardized tests are to get a rough idea of where students are compared to other schools or other classes. If you are teaching the right things and using the appropriate methods to help students learn, then there shouldn't be a problem with standardized tests! Students will do just fine if they're being taught the appropriate things in class, so I don't think it's fair to assume that standardized tests are completely bad!

All in all, I'm very glad that these speakers came. It was great to hear their input on issues that we've been discussing for several weeks. I really hope we get a chance to interview with other teachers in different school districts in the future!

Amy Streck

The discussion on Monday night was definitely an experience! I thought it was very creative to use this method to see different perspectives and opinions on the matter. Before we met on Monday night, I had thought that there was no way I would be persuaded to actually believe in the support for this plan, but I found myself agreeing with a few issues that were brought up to support it. (I loved when opposing views would throw excellent ideas back and forth - very fun to listen to!) I had hoped there might be more people who tried to support the plan instead of nearly everyone being against the plan. It would have been a greater debate if there had been several people on both sides, but I definitely think it got everyone thinking about the pros and cons of each argument!

Amy

Library Information

Personally, I don't believe that the Monday night meeting about the library's website was a great use of our time. I understand that some people might have trouble navigating the school's library website, but I think that our generation has a better handle on how to get around the internet. Also, we had this same presentation in our first year for Paideia, and this felt very repetitive. Last week, the review of Chalk and Wire and the requirements for the education program was a great review because there was a ton of information to remember. This informational meeting, however, dealt with issues that I don't believe needed to be discussed for an hour. It might have been a bit more appropriate to discuss the library's website for half of the time and maybe use the other half hour to discuss copyright issues, which we only got a handout for.

Amy